Why I'm partial to not-so-impartial Anna

The Observer (Royal National Theatre, Cottesloe)

Given the way senior Labour figures have been reacting to the downfall of Commons Speaker Michael Martin, it is worth asking if we British have any moral authority to lecture third world leaders about 'free and fair democracy' and how to concede to political defeat.

Matt Charman's clever new play, The Observer, is about a high-minded British woman who is deputy leader of an international group of observers overseeing an election in West Africa.

Fiona (Anna Chancellor) is one of those punctilious, bossy liberals who speaks sentences ending with a rising inflection. She prides herself on her professionalism.

Amoral: Cyril Nri and Anna Chancellor

Yet when she starts to become too involved in the election, she finds her Western democratic views hijacking her faultless conduct. She ceases to be an impartial judge - even while lecturing the African leaders on the importance of such impartiality. Miss Chancellor is excellent.

James Fleet plays a crumpled, nicely amoral British diplomat who spies on Fiona and decides not to stop her influencing the election result. This character is straight out of le Carre. Mr Fleet, with his weary shrugs and air of throwaway cynicism, is well equipped for the role.

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Fiona, who falls in love with her interpreter (Chuk Iwuji), talks heavily about 'empowering' the African electorate.

Mr Fleet's diplomat affects to be more worried about the jar of jam which broke in the diplomatic bag from London. Oh, and maybe it is worth his while gently suggesting that Fiona's interference in another country's democracy could lead to violence. 'It's not a game we play much anymore - taking sides,' he says absent-mindedly.

There are one or two unconvincing scenes. The country's top general (Cyril Nri) invites Fiona to state her terms for the president's surrender. I don't recall Robert Mugabe's top brass, for instance, making such moves. But Sir Richard Eyre's direction keeps one gripped.

There is also a delicious send-up of a TV foreign correspondent by Lloyd Hutchinson.

Maybe riots are needed to oust a rotten regime, anyway. 'Blood is a hopeful sign,' says one African character. 'It means the president is scared he might lose.'

It might yet reach such a pass here in London before Labour's seething mobsters are removed from the citadel.